Everyone likes a good conspiracy theory, right? Here are a few tinfoil hat theories that keep going round and round and round.

(1) Kurt Cobain was murdered. This one just won’t go away.

(2) The punk rock of the 1970s was actually a communist-funded plot designed to destabilize Western democracies;

(3) Lorde was not a teenager when she released Royals. “She’s just too mature an artist to be that young!”

(4) Gangsta rap was invented by the US government to help fill some newly constructed privately run prisons

(5) Bob Marley’s cancer was seeded by the CIA because they were worried he was becoming too popular.

Got any good ones? Let me know.

© 2025 Corus Radio, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

Wildlife lovers are flocking to a park on Vancouver’s west side to catch a glimpse of a young family of barred owls.

The nest is located in a tree in Douglas Park that has been fenced off to give the owls and young owlets some space.

Visitors are being reminded to keep their distance so as not to distress the birds.

“It’s always nice to see animals,” owl watcher Alan Garr told Global News as he peered through a pair of binoculars.

“I think there are a lot of owls in our city, a lot of raptors, too. We just don’t see them that well, but this is a great shot.”

Another observer said he’d just moved into the neighbourhood and was delighted by the birds.

“That’s one of the things people love about Vancouver and B.C. is we’ve got these great green spaces,” he said.

“We come by the park every day and have seen them kind of pre-hatch, start to peek their heads out, and now one of them is up in a tree surrounded by crows, so it’s kind of nerve-wracking.”

Barred owls are native to eastern Canada, and can be found throughout B.C.

They have adapted to live in cities, where they feed on songbirds and rats.

The city is reminding people to stay outside of the fenced area, to keep quiet, and to keep any dogs on a leash.

© 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

Former Manitoba Bisons football head coach Brian Dobie leads this year’s list of inductees for the Football Manitoba Hall of Fame.

The longtime Bisons coach is one of eight individuals to be enshrined as part of the class of 2025. Dobie retired from the Herd late last year after coaching the team for 29 years. He led the Bisons to the 2007 Vanier Cup as well as three Canada West conference titles.

Dobie was named the conference’s coach of the year five different times and also coached the Churchill Bulldogs over his 50-year coaching career.

Former Neepawa Tigers coach Murray Black will also be inducted in the coach’s category.

Two former players were selected for induction. Christine O’Donnell will head into the hall after playing alongside the boys before trailblazing a path with the Winnipeg Fearless and Wolfpack women’s teams.

Jerome Swarath will also be inducted after playing touch football for over 45 years. He played in every major non-contact league and won eight championships over five decades and later became the commissioner of the PIT Touch & Flag Football League which is the biggest league in Canada.

They’re joined by four builders in Terry Andryo, Craig Bachynski, Richard Dudek, and Don McPherson.

The Winnipeg Assassins Touch Team will also go into the hall of fame after winning 30 league titles over 33 years, while also capturing the 1982 National Intermediate Championship before retiring from outdoor play in 2011.

The 11th annual induction ceremony is scheduled for Sept. 25.

© 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

A 70-year-old man who was randomly assaulted in Vancouver last week is speaking out about the attack and says Canada needs to reform its criminal justice system.

“It was so fast, he must have rushed at me,” said the victim, who Global News is only identifying as John out of safety concerns.

The incident happened around 3 p.m. last Friday, as John was walking near Homer and West Pender streets. He had his phone and credit card out to pay for parking, and said he was only vaguely aware of a man walking in his direction.

“I think I glanced at my phone for a second, and the next thing I knew I saw this man’s face up here, but I was falling back, and he had, I think, what they call ‘body slammed’ me,” he explained.

“And as you are going down, you are thinking what is going on? And then I heard my head crack on the sidewalk. And you still don’t understand what is happening.”

From the ground, John said he could see the man walking away as if nothing had happened. The assailant did not try and take his phone or credit card, he added.

The incident left him with a head injury that required stitches and a shard of glass embedded in his scalp.

Vancouver police say Derrick James McFeeters, 40, was arrested on Granville Street later the same day. He has since been charged with one count of assault causing bodily harm.

McFeeters has a lengthy criminal file, and was out on bail when he allegedly attacked John.

Two weeks before that, he was charged with assaulting two police officers, one of whom suffered a broken wrist.

John said he believes the incident is a symptom of bigger problems with the way Canada deals with crime.

“All I can tell you is you feel less safe than you did 30 years ago,” he said, adding that the incident has left him hyper vigilant when he’s out in public.

He said the federal government needs to stiffen penalties and create legal provisions to “take care of people who cannot take care of themselves.”

“The everyday person that you talk to knows that the system doesn’t work, and they know it has to change. And we know it has to change starting at the top, and I mean Ottawa,” he said.

“It means that you stop this catch and release and promise to appear, and you’ve got to punish people that need punishing and keep them from having the opportunity that they have to put the safety of the general public at risk.”

McFeeters, meanwhile, remains in custody and is due back in court on Friday for a bail hearing.

— with files from Rumina Daya

© 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

Sheldon Taylor is battered and bruised on Thursday, and for good reason.

“I’m a slow-moving man today,” the Wetaskiwin, Alta. man said after an ordeal that could have easily ended his life.

On Thursday morning, he was hit and flipped over the hood of his own pickup truck, as it was being stolen from his own driveway.

It happened just before 7 a.m., as Taylor was getting ready to head to work out west of the central Alberta city.

It was a chilly morning and garbage day, so after starting his 2001 GMC Sierra, he left the older vehicle to warm up while he ran back inside to quickly grab the trash.

“I literally grabbed a bag of garbage, I was standing on my front step. Was about to put it in the bin — for collection — and that’s when I heard my truck door close and I realized someone was in it.”

The next few moments happened fast. Taylor said the thief slammed into reverse and gunned the truck backwards down the driveway while he chased after.

“I was yelling at him, saying, ‘What the heck are you doing? Where are you going? Like, get out of my truck.'”

Once they both got to the street, Taylor said the thief took aim at him.

“He swerved in and clipped me with the driver front corner, sending me over the hood for a nice little ride.”

Surveillance video from a neighbour showed the entire incident. The thief arrived on a bike, but ditched it on Taylor’s lawn upon finding the running truck. He got in, reversed, and hit the owner, sending Taylor up onto the hood and off over the driver’s side.

“You could see the marks on the street right there where he swerved in and clipped me,” Taylor said.

“And then he stopped — he stopped at the stop sign. Great law-abiding citizen stops at the stop sign, you know, for a few seconds and decided to bolt off.”

The father of seven was left laying on the pavement while his wife was out of the house, dropping their kids off at the school bus.

“I’m just thankful it was me encountering this situation versus sometimes I drive my children to the bus and they would have been in the vehicle in that exact moment on some of the days.

“I’m just thankful they went with her and not in there today.”

Taylor said he came down on his hand and got some road rash from the hard landing.

The side of his body also was banged up from the impact. He slowly crawled back to the house to call for help.

“My dog thought I wanted to play because I was crawling through the living just to get ahold of my phone and call 911 and my wife too.”

RCMP responded quickly, Taylor said, collecting information and taking away the discarded bike. Then, Taylor’s wife took him to the hospital, where staff said he was lucky to walk – or crawl – away with just soft tissue and ligament injuries.

“I got some rashes, minor rashes in my hand, wrist is sore from catching me,” he said, adding the x-ray didn’t reveal any broken bones.

“Bruised pretty good and inside my hip — it’s a mess, bruised probably really bad internally.”

The Taylor family moved to Wetaskiwin three years ago for job opportunities and said crime is a problem in the community, and they’ve tried to be mindful about not creating opportunities for thieves and having surveillance cameras on their property.

“When we first moved here, we locked everything up at night — one night we slipped up and bikes went missing. We managed to get all the bikes back because we’re good head hunters,” he said, adding they scoured pawn shops and more to get their bicycles back. “They were not in good condition when they returned, of course.

“They tried to scratch VINs and stuff off, so I imagine my truck’s going to be in pretty rough shape when I get a hold of it again — if I do.”

As of Wednesday afternoon, Taylor’s truck is still missing. He expects he will be driving the family minivan to work until his GMC is either found, or he is forced to get a new vehicle.

Even with all the measures the family has taken to secure their property, this theft has left Taylor disturbed, in addition to in pain.

“I have six daughters and a newborn son and a wife that need to be safe at all times, right? That’s where the dog kind of came into play because he’s pretty good alarm system, right? More, I don’t know what to tell ya,” he said, adding he feels Wetaskiwin needs a more visible police presence.

“This riff-raff is everywhere. It’s a headache. Nothing’s safe. Can’t even keep my kid’s bike out.”

RCMP told Global News officers responded just after 7 a.m. to a home near 55 street and 41 Avenue in Wetaskiwin, and police confirmed Taylor’s version of events.

Police and Taylor said the thief is described as a six-foot-tall man with a medium complexion and no facial hair, who was wearing a black hat, a beige shirt with long sleeves and black pants.

“That’s about all I got in the whole panic of this scenario,” Taylor said.

The stolen orange 2001 GMC Sierra has an Alberta licence plate BZF6276.

If anyone has any information about the stolen truck and its whereabouts, or the suspect, is asked to call the Wetaskiwin RCMP at 780-312-7267.

If you want to remain anonymous, you can contact Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS) or submit information online.

© 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

WARNING: Details in this story are disturbing. Discretion is advised.

On Mother’s Day, David Peter was going about his normal routine, getting in his steps and some exercise on a daily walk.

He started on his usual route up Hemlock Valley Road on Sasquatch Mountain Resort in Agassiz, B.C.

Then, he came across a grey truck parked on the route.

“I only noticed it because I heard a man and a lady yelling and then soon after that, I seen a black dog and then shortly after that a brown dog,” Peter, a member of the Sts’ailes First Nation, told Global News.

“They come down a hill and they were barking at me.”

Peter said the dogs were off-leash.

He said the black dog started biting his left forearm and then the brown dog attacked his right forearm.

“So I was busy using both my arms, trying to protect myself,” he said. “And my hoodie was loose and that seemed to kind of protect me a bit, because it was getting the hoodie more on this side than it was right onto my arm.”

Peter said that is when the black dog went for his face and as the dog clamped down, he fell to the ground.

“I was laying in a ditch for, it seemed to be, at least five minutes, that felt like that dog was clamping on to me,” he said.

Peter said it happened so fast.

He said the two people at the truck did follow behind the dogs and were yelling something, but he couldn’t hear what.

“But when I was laying there on the ground, and the dog was locked jaw onto my bicep here, the lady with blondish-white hair, she said, ‘I’m so sorry,’ and then I told her, ‘Why don’t you have your guys’ dogs on a leash?” Peter added.

As the people were leading the dogs away, Peter called 911 and he thought they would come back to check on him.

They didn’t.

“They turned around and they went down and they drove past me and didn’t bother to stop to check on me,” he said.

“And as the truck drove by, I heard the lady say it one more time, that she said, ‘I am so sorry’, but the man didn’t say a word.”

Peter said he felt really nauseous, a pressure in his head, a loud ringing in his ears and everything was spinning.

“I managed to take my hoodie off and I used that to put pressure, but I was bleeding in more than one spot, so I took the place where it was bleeding the most — on my bicep — and when I took my sweater off, I noticed a lot of chunks of my meat were falling out,” Peter said.

He added he became quite emotional when he was talking to the 911 dispatcher.

“I was questioning why, why are they just leaving me laying here in a ditch and I can’t do anything for myself.

“They’re just leaving there without even seeing if I was going to be OK or not.”

Peter added he didn’t even know how serious his injuries were until he took his hoodie off and was covered in blood.

“I was hollering, and I was crying when the dog was clamped onto me,” he said.

“It felt like he was locked right in, like vice grips. I knew there was no way for me to break loose.”

Peter said an ambulance arrived in about 30 minutes while he lay on the ground.

He had to have more than 50 stitches.

“(My  sister) said when I got stitched up, she said the doctor was snipping away a lot of the meat that was coming out of my arm, because when I took my hoodie off, I seen a lot of my meat,” Peter said.

“Meat all over on the ground.”

Peter said the experience left him traumatized and emotional. Now, he is scared to walk up Hemlock Valley Road, which was his favourite place.

“I’m afraid to be able to have that freedom just to do my daily exercise,” he said.

Agassiz RCMP confirmed it is investigating.

“While such occurrences are uncommon, they serve as a critical reminder of the responsibility that comes with pet ownership,” Sgt. Andy Lot, spokesperson for the Agassiz RCMP told Global News.

Timothy Felix, a councillor for the Sts’ailes First Nation, said when they heard the two dog owners had left Peter there, not knowing what kind of injuries he had, they were disheartened to know the pet owners are avoiding taking responsibility.

“I’d hope they come forward and be accountable for their actions,” Felix said.

“I think any sane person would be consumed with guilt, and it’s just going to eat away at them.

“He could have died. So I’m hoping they’re going to come forward and be countable and make sure this doesn’t happen to nobody else.”

Peter agreed, saying what happened wasn’t right and he wants the dog owners to know they could have left him there to die.

© 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

The Vancouver Police Department has a new top cop.

Steve Rai was officially appointed the department’s 32nd chief constable on Thursday, following former chief Adam Palmer’s retirement.

Rai has been serving as interim Chief Constable since Palmer stepped down.

“Chief Rai brings more than three decades of experience with the VPD,” Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim said in a statement.

“He has worked across nearly every area of the department, starting as a frontline officer in the Downtown Eastside and rising through the ranks to lead major citywide operations, including the 2010 Winter Olympics and the 2011 Stanley Cup Riot.”

Sim also pointed to Rai’s work on recruiting and training, wellness and cultural competency and adopting new technology in the department as assets.

Rai holds a bachelor of arts in Asian studies from UBC and a masters of arts in criminal justice from the University of the Fraser Valley. Prior to his career with the VPD he served in the Canadian Forces Reserves.

Rai signed on with the VPD in 1990, working his way up from patrol constable through a variety of assignments, including as an Emergency Response Team crisis negotiator, and was promoted to the rank of Inspector in 2007 when he was tapped as executive officer in the chief constable’s office.

He served in the Training and Recruiting Section as the force staffed up for the 2010 Olympics, and served as the Vancouver Departmental Operations Centre during the games themselves, along with the force’s response to Occupy Vancouver and as North Commander during the 2011 Stanley Cup riot.

Rai was also front and centre in the department’s response to the Lapu Lapu Day vehicle ramming attack, an incident he deemed the “darkest day” in the city’s history.

He was promoted to his last role as Deputy Chief Constable of Support Services Division in 2015, which saw him lead the hiring of the majority of current sworn and civilian members and spearhead the department’s cultural competency and de-escalation training programs.

“Chief Rai has played a key role in shaping how the VPD serves our city today,” Sim added.

“He’s a decorated officer, a trailblazer, and a leader who embodies what it means to serve and protect Vancouverites.”

Rai is the second VPD deputy chief constable to earn a promotion to a top job in policing in recent months.

In April, Deputy Chief Finoa Wilson was tapped to be the next chief constable of the Victoria Police Department, a role she will take on this summer.

© 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

First Nations communities in the Interlake, Man., region are hoping that new designs for a long-delayed flood mitigation project for Lake Manitoba and Lake St. Martin will address their concerns over its impact on Indigenous people in the area.

“We’re old timers, we like the land the way nature made it,” Lake Manitoba First Nation councillor Dwight Paul said while walking along the shores of Watchorn Bay on Lake Manitoba, where a proposed flood outlet channel  is slated to go.

“But progress and life is progress and life, I guess.”

After major flooding in 2011 devastated the region, and again in 2014, the province proposed two flood outlet channels, about 23 km each, which would divert flood waters from Lake Manitoba to Lake St. Martin and into Lake Winnipeg.

Lake Manitoba First Nation Chief Cornell McLean, who is also the chair of the Interlake Reserves Tribal Council, says First Nations need to be properly consulted and included in every step of the planning process — something he’s been calling for for years.

“We’re not against it, by any means. Lake Manitoba (First Nation), we’re not against it, but we want to be part of the process. So does the Interlake Tribal Council,” Chief McLean told Global News.

The chief says it would have a major impact on their way of life and treaty rights for Indigenous communities in the area.

“There’s going to be significant impact because of the fishing. We’re not natural resources, but we know that the control structures they’re going to put in place, either it will kill off the fish or are they going to be able to make it across those channels that they’re proposing?” the chief said.
“But what we do know is from the livelihood that our people sustain for their hunting and their medicine picking, (it) will be deeply impacted by this channel, and the environmental assessment proves that.”

Almost a year ago, an environmental impact assessment report from the federal government stated that the channels could have significant adverse environmental effects for dozens of First Nations communities in the Interlake.

The report is the reason why late last year, the province announced it was going back to the drawing board on the project, asking the federal government to pause environmental assessments in order to address concerns from First Nations.
“There was a good chance that the federal government would not approve the project. They felt strongly that the province had not met our obligations in terms of First Nations and the environmental issues,” said Lisa Naylor, Manitoba’s minister of transportation and infrastructure.

“This is a critical project for (preventing) flooding and keeping people safe and in their homes in the Interlake. So at that time, I asked them to pause the review to give us more time to rebuild the relationships with First Nations that were so badly damaged under the previous government.”

The province is currently working on a memorandum of understanding with the Interlake Reserves Tribal Council (IRTC), which represents seven communities in the Interlake, for the project.

Karl Zadnik, the chief executive officer of the IRTC, says the new designs will need to strike a balance, and currently, they’re feeling optimistic about the province taking their concerns seriously.

“We’re usually … the ones to be the sacrificial lambs. The north, the reserves, the land — we still use for our livelihoods, its sustenance and its medicines. The land is very sacred to us,” Zadnik said.

“We don’t know it’s in the First Nations’ best interest,” Zadnik added.

“Those two are at war with each other, public best interest versus First Nations best interest. So there’s no proof it will protect us, but there is proof it will protect the cottagers, the City of Winnipeg, the City of Brandon. So that’s where we’ve come to grips with our government; let’s design something that is going to protect both.”

Although the province previously stated the new designs would be completed this spring, Minister Naylor declined to provide a timeline to Global News.

“It takes time to rebuild those relationships and it takes time to work together and so that is what my focus (is on),” Naylor said.

“I can’t necessarily say if there will be any differentiation in design. What I can say is there may be some small alterations to avoid a burial ground, for example. We’re working with First Nations on what are their priorities to make sure we can do this project and do it in such a way that we keep Manitobans safe from future flooding.”

© 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

A senior is badly injured in a random attack, as we learn more about the violent background of the accused. A notorious sex offender is back in custody just hours after his release. And Vancouver police say a task force on the Downtown Eastside is seeing success.

Click here for more Global BC videos

© 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

Manitoba Opposition leader Obby Khan stripped a Progressive Conservative caucus member of his critic duties Thursday, as questions continued to swirl about the former government’s actions related to a proposed silica sand mine.

Jeff Wharton, one of three Tories found this week to have violated the province’s conflict of interest law, is to remain in caucus but will no longer serve as critic for business, mining, trade and job creation.

“I have removed his critic role in light of this report that came out … and we’ll move forward from there,” Khan said.

The province’s ethics commissioner ruled in a report Wednesday that former premier Heather Stefanson, former deputy premier Cliff Cullen and Wharton, the economic development minister at the time, acted improperly by pushing for an environmental licence to be granted to the Sio Silica mining project after the Tories lost the 2023 election to the NDP.

Wharton apologized in the legislature and said he accepted the report’s findings. He was not made available to reporters.

“To all Manitobans — and particularly the (people of) Red River North, the constituents that I have the honour to represent every single day — I am sorry. I will do better,” Wharton said.

Ethics commissioner Jeffrey Schnoor wrote that despite the election loss, the three Tories tried to get the project approved before the new NDP government, led by Wab Kinew, was sworn in.

Their actions violated the Conflict of Interest Act and contravened the caretaker convention — a long-standing parliamentary principle that forbids outgoing governments from making major decisions, the report said.

The project did not get approved, due in part to opposition from bureaucrats and two other Tory ministers. The NDP government formally rejected the proposal months later.

Stefanson and Cullen have since left politics. Stefanson, in a prepared statement, said she was only acting to further and protect the public interest. Cullen has not returned requests for comment.

Schnoor is recommending fines of $18,000 for Stefanson, $12,000 for Cullen and $10,000 for Wharton.

The legislature will vote whether to accept the report. Khan said he will vote in favour and believes his caucus will as well.

Kinew said there are still many unanswered questions about the former Tory government’s actions that need to be answered.

“Why were they so intent on ignoring the results of the election to improperly further this private interest?” Kinew said.

The report said there was no evidence that the three politicians would have gained anything financially had the project gone ahead, but Kinew said the ethics commissioner’s ability to delve into any possible financial ties was limited.

The premier also pointed to the report’s findings that some of what the commissioner was told by the Tory politicians contradicted the evidence.
Schnoor’s report said the facts he learned “simply do not support the assertions made by Ms. Stefanson,” including a statement from her that the project was at risk if approval did not come quickly.

Schnoor also said Wharton told him about a conversation with Cullen that the commissioner ruled didn’t happen.

Kinew said there will be more discussion on the issues in the legislature in the days and weeks ahead.

“There’s a whole lot of unanswered questions here that really speak to a group in the PC universe, including the former premier, who did some really bad things,” Kinew said.

“So I think there’s a lot more that needs to be accounted for.”

© 2025 The Canadian Press